KNOXVILLE, Tenn.- On June 22, 2016, Kevin Michael Pippin, 41, of Knoxville, Tenn., was sentenced by the Honorable R. Leon Jordan, Senior U.S. District Judge, to serve 124 months in prison for distributing and possessing child pornography. Following his release from prison, he will be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for 15 years and required to register with the sex offender registry in any state in which he resides, works, or attends school.

Pippin pleaded guilty in July 2015 to federal charges stemming from an undercover investigation into distribution of child pornography via peer-to-peer file sharing software on the Internet. After undercover investigators downloaded child pornography from Pippin’s computer, a federal search warrant was executed at his residence. A forensic examination of his computer equipment revealed that he had collected thousands of images and 82 videos of child pornography. A large assortment of the depictions of child abuse collected by Pippin was available for download by others from his computer through the use of the peer-to-peer software.

During the sentencing hearing, Judge Jordan remarked that the “staggering” number of images of child pornography the defendant had collected justified, in part, the length of the of the prison sentence.

This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Morris represented the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.